Love at Hogwarts
by Sharptooth
Summary: AU. In the middle of fourth year, Rita Skeeter's article about Harry and Hermione has unexpected consequences. Unabashedly Harry/Hermione. Ron stays the King of Prats that he was at that time. Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything other than the story line . All rights belong to J.K. Rowling

**Love at Hogwarts**

_Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl, who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school._

Hermione Granger sat in the library and read that paragraph over and over again, scarcely believing that that Skeeter cow could write such dribble about her and Harry. It just went to show that some people would stoop to any lengths to further their careers.

She was just about to comment about it to Harry, when she caught the look in his eye. He looked very different just then, not the way that he normally looked. He was looking at her with an almost... well... hungry look. She didn't know what to think, but she felt her cheeks reddening. She quickly looked away, suddenly fearful that Harry had caught her blushing.

She didn't know why she had reacted the way that she did. There was nothing between her and Harry. Sure, she loved him, but it was like a brother, nothing else. He was her best friend. Surely there was nothing else to it. She decided to push it away, and get past it. She grabbed her book and thrust her face down into it.

Harry found himself in an odd situation. He really didn't know what to think. He had felt such bitter embarrassment over what Rita Skeeter had written. Somehow, she had managed to turn his stuttered "ers" and long silences into a long story about his missing his dead Mum and Dad. And that last part about his finding love at Hogwarts, what utter, ridiculous trash.

So why couldn't he get that last paragraph out of his head. He'd have to throttle Colin later. He didn't have feelings for Hermione. Sure, he loved her, but as a sister, nothing else. Yeah, she was pretty and all, but that didn't mean that he had feelings for her.

He found his gaze wandering to her while they were in the library though. When she had wanted to know what he was upset about, he had thrust the article at her. She had laughed at most of it, but he found himself drawn to her expressions as she read it. He was waiting for her to denounce it, but she never did. He was watching her closely, and when she looked up at him, she blushed, right away. What did that mean? Did she like him? What if she did? What was he to do?

He shook his head in a futile effort to clear it, but it was no use. Thoughts of the article, and his best friend in front of him, kept sneaking their way into his head. Nothing he did seemed to work to get rid of them.

He glanced up at her again, and his breath caught in his throat. She was absentmindedly flipping a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, but it didn't want to stay. It kept flopping back down in front of her eyes, and she would blow it away with a puff of air and then catch it and place it back behind her ear.

Harry found himself trembling slightly while watching this. Her lips would gently pucker to blow the hair, forming a perfect shape. He wondered absently if she had ever kissed anyone before.

Why was he thinking these things? He didn't feel anything for her, he couldn't. Why wouldn't his heart stop racing? He had to do something, he had to get out of here. Unfortunately his feet seemed to be made out of lead and wouldn't move.

Hermione was getting irritated with her hair. Why wouldn't it cooperate? She blew it out of her eyes for what seemed the hundredth time, and as she tucked it behind her ear she caught a short movement from Harry. Out of the corner of her eye she caught him looking at her. He was watching her again. She gazed up and down his features.

He was sweating, and he had a sort of wild eyed, confused look to him. She looked down at his hands, and saw to her amazement that his one hand had a death grip on the table top, his knuckles white with strain. The other hand was fidgeting, moving back and forth with restless energy. She brought her gaze back up, and noted with a bit of horror that his body was trembling.

"Is something wrong Harry?" she said before she could stop herself.

He looked like a deer caught in headlights. His eyes went wide, and he opened and closed his mouth again and again in rapid succession, no sound escaping. _He looked so cute when he did that._ Where did that thought come from?

Harry couldn't say anything. His mind had gone completely blank. Hermione had just said something to him, but he couldn't for the life of him say what it was. As she had turned the light had caught her hair in just the right way, causing it to look like a halo around her head. It gave her an angelic look, and it took all conscious thought with it.

She was looking at him now, her gaze intent upon him. He could feel his face turning scarlet. He just wished that she'd stop looking at him for a moment. Then maybe he could control his reaction. Just for a moment, that's all he'd need. Why wasn't she looking away?

Hermione looked at Harry, unaware that she was staring. He was turning beet red. He had been looking at her, and it embarrassed him when she saw. It was probably the cutest thing she had ever seen. Unable to help herself she started reaching out to touch his hand.

She was reaching for his hand, why was she reaching for his hand? Why wasn't he moving his hand away? Why wouldn't his hand move? He was almost in a panic now. Her hand was inching towards his. What was he going to do if she touched it? His heart was hammering its way out of his chest.

He wasn't moving. Why wasn't he moving? Why couldn't she help herself? Her hand was inexorably making its way towards his, no matter what she did stop it. Her heart was hammering its way out of her chest.

Her hand touched his and it all happened at once. Harry jumped like he had been shot, a yelp bursting out of his mouth. Hermione flinched so hard that she slammed her knees on the bottom of the table top. She cursed and turned away, blushing furiously over her clumsiness.

Harry was pacing back and forth, his knees feeling wobbly, and his pulse racing. He glanced over at Hermione and saw her sitting there, rubbing her knees. There were huge red marks from where she had hit them. Then it hit him. She had pushed her skirt up so that she could get at her knees unhindered. He was riveted to the sight. Her legs were so… curvy. He had never seen anything like it. His eyes drank in the sight. He was like an addict that was gazing at his drug of choice. His mouth had gone dry, and he felt a longing deep down in his soul.

His gaze started to wander over her now. She had curves in all the right places. Why hadn't he noticed this before? He had always thought she was pretty, but maybe Rita Skeeter was right, maybe she was stunningly pretty. Then her head turned toward him. He froze.

She was busy rubbing some feeling back into her knees when she felt his eyes upon him. Slowly she turned to look at him. He was frozen in place, his eyes locked on her, and he wasn't looking at her face. She allowed her gaze to linger, and she realized that he was actually very good looking. Quidditch had toned his muscles giving him a trim waist and making his shoulders broaden. His legs were very muscular, and they went up to his…

She was checking him out! Hermione was checking him out! He stood there, gazing at her curves, realizing that they both were doing the same thing. It was like a switch had been thrown. He was suddenly in motion. He crossed the distance between them in two steps. He grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out of the seat and down the aisle into the stacks.

When they had gotten out of sight he whipped her past him and pushed her up against the shelves. He stepped right up next to her until he had her pinned there, his face mere inches away from her. She looked up at him with a look of half fear, and half desire. Unable to help himself any longer he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

They were hungry, neither of them ever having experienced anything like this before. They explored each others' lips thoroughly, attempting to quench the fire that was in them. After what seemed an eternity, they finally stepped back to draw a breath.

"Harry, that was…"

"Wow," said Harry.

"Yeah," murmured Hermione, embarrassed over what had just happened. A crash startled them into action, and they raced out of the stacks together, just in time to see two redheads running out of the library, while the table that their things were on was still spinning on the floor.

"Look, Hermione, I…" Harry began.

"Harry, what do we do? Where do we go from here? Are we together now?"

"What? Oh, yeah, of course Hermione. I couldn't live without you." He looked around. "What do you suppose we should do?"

"We've got to find Ron and Ginny, I'm sure that was them."

"Yeah, well, Ron's still not talking to me."

"I've told you what to do about that, Harry. Come on, we've got to do something. We've hurt them. We've got to make it better."

"Yeah," said Harry, not sounding like he liked the idea at all.

Hermione just grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the library behind her.

They got to the Fat Lady's portrait, and stopped. Harry looked at Hermione. "You had better let me go in before you. If Ron's too mad, I'd rather he swung at me instead of you."

Hermione got a scared look on her face, but just nodded.

Harry said the password, and stepped through, Hermione right behind him. They cautiously made their way through the tunnel and into the common room. As it was quite late, there were only two people there: Ron and Ginny. Ginny was in a chair, sobbing, and Ron was pacing back and forth, his back to them.

Harry approached as quietly as he could, and then stood there waiting for Ron to turn around. When he didn't, Harry got impatient.

"Look, Mate, I'm sorry," he began.

Ron spun around and swung from his heels. Harry saw it coming, but didn't move. The uppercut caught him under the jaw, slamming his teeth together and causing him to see stars. The room spun for a moment, and the next thing he knew he was looking up at the ceiling, and both his jaw and the back of his head hurt, a lot.

There was a shriek, and the next thing he knew, there was a lot of brown hair in his face. He vaguely caught sight of Ginny throwing herself at Ron.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Ron bellowed. "IT ISN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU TO RIP MY GUTS OUT, IS IT? NO, YOU HAD TO DESTROY MY SISTER TOO!" He was trying to get around Ginny, but she was clinging to him, crying for him to stop.

Harry tried to prop himself up on his elbows, but the pain in his head, combined with the weight on his chest stopped him. He concentrated for a moment and realized that Hermione was on top of him, her back to his chest, and she had her hand outstretched, pleading with Ron to stop.

What was it that Ron was saying? Harry was trying to concentrate on it, but his head hurt so much. He reached around and felt the back of his head. He winced as he touched something sticky and pain shot through him. He felt woozy for a moment, but fought it off.

Harry lay there, panting, feeling queasy. "Ron, I'm sorry, please, would you calm down and let me apologize?" Each word hurt, but he had to try.

"It's not me you need to apologize to, you git," Ron said through clenched teeth. "It's Ginny you need to apologize to. She's the one whose heart you just broke."

"Maybe I did, and I'm sorry if that's so, but what would you have me do Ron? Ginny has never once told me that she has feelings for me. Never once did she do anything that told me that I should think of her in any way other than as a younger sister." He stopped for a moment as the world spun out of control. He turned to retch, but nothing came up.

"Oh, cry me a river, Potter," Ron spat out. "You've got everything, fame, glory, riches, girls… everything. Now you want me to believe that you care about the feelings of lesser people? You make me sick."

"SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP!" Harry roared. He managed to find his way to his feet. "You think you know me, Ron? You think you understand me? You've proven in the last couple of months that you don't know shit about me.

"Let's take what you just said about me for example. Yeah, I've got fame. How did I get that fame? Let's see… I was attacked at the age of fifteen months by a psychotic madman who wanted to kill me and managed to kill both of my parents!

"Glory, let's see… Same thing… effing madman… no real surprise there. But, while I'm on the subject, that madman has tried to kill me in one form or another at least three times now.

"Now, about the money. How did I get that, Ron? Oh yeah, by having my parents killed by the _FUCKING MADMAN!_ I'd give it all up to have what you do, Ron! You have a family that loves you! I have family that regularly beats me, starves me and locks me in various rooms for extended periods of time!

"So now we come to the subject of girls. Most girls act like either screaming fan-girls around me, or they're scheming to trap me into a relationship that will result in pregnancy and marriage. I've never been on a date, Ron! I'm pretty much afraid to, for what might happen.

"Oh, and since we're on the topic of girls, let's just touch on the topic of Ginny." He turned to look at the girl, apology clear in his eyes. "She's your little sister, Ron! You've made it perfectly clear that you don't want anyone, me included to ever think of her in any way other than as your little sister. So if I don't think of her in any other way but as a little sister, because believe it or not your family has been the only family to ever show me any affection, then it's your fault that I see her that way.

"Ginny has never been anything but kind to me, though for a while she was kind of a fan-girl. I care about her a lot, Ron, but only as a sister." He turned back to Ginny. "I've never had a sister before, but I think I really need one in my life; someone that I can confide in, and hold, and laugh with. I need that in my life. I hope you can fill that for me. I want you in my life."

He turned back to Ron. "So now that I've cleared up how I feel about your sister, let's talk about Hermione. She's my best friend Ron. You used to be my best mate, but you've been a right git this year. Hermione's been the only one who has stuck by me, and we've grown a lot closer this year." He looked over at her and was rewarded with a brilliant smile.

"She's not yours, she's mine," Ron hissed out. "She's going to be my slut…"

Harry spun around, the back of his fist swinging in an arc and connecting with the side of Ron's face. There was a loud crack as Ron's cheekbone and eye socket both shattered. He dropped like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Harry wavered on his feet as both Hermione and Ginny let out twin shrieks.

He groaned and clutched his head. Merlin but it hurt. He dropped to his knees and looked at his former best mate. The side of Ron's face had swollen to the point that it was almost not recognizable. "Bollocks," he whispered. "Ginny, I'm sorry that this had to happen. If he hadn't talked like that about Hermione…"

He was cut off as Ginny looked at him and reached out to cup his cheek. "He brought it on himself, Harry." She pulled her hand back and gasped. There was blood on her fingers. "You're hurt," she said softly.

"I'll be alright," he muttered. "We've got to get Ron to the infirmary." He swayed dangerously as the room threatened to spin out from under him. "Maybe me too…" He dropped to his knees before depositing the remnants of his last meal on the carpet.

*0*0*

"I love him Ginny. I'm sorry, but I think I always have," the voice said as Harry wavered back into consciousness. "When he kissed me, well, everything fell into place. I'm sorry if we hurt you."

"It's alright Hermione," Ginny replied. "I overreacted. I've had a crush on Harry ever since I first laid eyes on him, but I never got over it enough to get to know him, the real Harry. You did that, and he fell in love with you because of it. I missed my chance, but at least I know that he'll be happy with you." She paused for a moment. "He said that he wanted me in his life. He still wants to hold me and to do things with me, to talk and confide in me. At least I can have that.

"Oh Hermione, I love him too, but maybe someday I can find somebody who loves me like he loves you."

"You will," Harry croaked. He was assaulted by twin hugs from either side as the two girls squealed with excitement when they discovered he was awake.

"Do you think your mum will forgive me?" he asked softly. "For hurting Ron that is," he added quickly.

"Well, since he hit you first, and did crack your skull and three of your teeth, yeah, I think so," she replied. "Look, I've got to run and owl Mum with what really happened before my prat of a brother can lie his arse off about it. You take care of him, Hermione." With that she made her way out of the infirmary.

"Do you think that Ron will forgive me?" Harry asked.

"Give him some time Harry," Hermione answered. "He'll come around. We'll get through it together…" She trailed off, looking at him, concern in her eyes.

"Ron Weasley may never be my best mate again, Hermione," he said as he grabbed her hand. "I just don't know. The only thing that I do know is that for once Rita Skeeter got something right: Harry Potter has found love at Hogwarts."

He pulled her down to him and kissed her soundly to prove his point.

**Author's Note: **I had originally wrote this for another site, and it ended very differently. This is my Harmony version. Hope you liked it. Harry's response to Ron is very reminiscent of a similar comeback in Seel'vor's "A Harmonian Way of Life". I love that story, so here is a little tribute to that, with my own twist to it.

Sharptooth


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